“I’m forever grateful for the prompting to come to BYUH and the PCC. Tafiti came to BYUH in 1987 from Apia in Western Samoa. In Samoa, when people came to visit, his family would tell him, “‘Get up and dance.’ I always would when the other kids were too shy,” said Tafiti. What sets Tafiti apart as a performer is his personality. I want to be out here and see things and learn,” he said. “I was the kind of kid who learned really fast,” Tafiti said.
"That’s where our deepest understanding of who we are and where we come from and why we do the things we do occur,” said Tafiti.Īfter his first introduction to fireknife dancing at 8 years old by his older brother, Ah Chew Tafiti, he said it was second nature to him. It is learned by listening, watching and doing over and over with the guidance of an older family member. The knowledge gained from our ancestors can never truly be learned from a book. Tafiti said he had the advantage of growing up with elders in his village and learned the culture directly from them. Samoan students who come to BYU-Hawaii can gain a deeper knowledge of their culture from the PCC. “There’s so much in him that is making the Samoan Village still alive and preserved like how it was back in the days.” “I have learned some things of my culture that are dying today that I never knew before from Kap,” Seupule said. Tafiti has been a mentor to him, he said, expanding his knowledge of fireknife dancing and Samoan culture. Young people are captivated by the fireknife dance, Tafiti said, but “fireknife dancing draws them into their culture to learn who they are.” Wally Sopi Seupule, a sophomore from Samoa studying business, has worked with Tafiti in the Samoan Village at the PCC for two years. After 28 years of fireknife dancing at the Polynesian Cultural Center, Kap Te’o Tafiti has been building a legacy far deeper than a performing art.
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